Toast, a Calgary startup specializing in talent acquisition, is introducing an AI-powered recruitment platform designed to help recruiters find qualified women and gender-diverse candidates in tech, overcoming traditional algorithmic biases in hiring.
- AI platform targets hiring biases against women in tech
- Integrates with existing applicant tracking systems
- Beta version rollout invites recruiters to join waitlist
What happened
Toast, a Calgary-based talent acquisition company, announced the upcoming beta release of its AI-powered recruitment platform called the Toast Talent Marketplace. The platform is designed to help recruiters and companies tap into a database of roughly 35,000 women and gender-diverse candidates in tech roles, searchable by various criteria such as skills, seniority, and location. It features a semantic AI that enables plain language queries and a plugin to integrate with client applicant tracking systems.
The platform aims to counteract the historical biases ingrained in typical hiring algorithms by prioritizing inclusivity and representation. Toast’s founder and CEO, April Hicke, explained that unlike traditional ATS systems that tend to filter out qualified women due to biased training data, their technology is focused on surfacing underrepresented talent rather than screening them away.
Why it matters
Many AI hiring tools today rely on data that reflects past hiring decisions, often reinforcing systemic biases favoring male candidates. This perpetuates the underrepresentation of women and gender-diverse individuals in STEM fields. Toast’s platform addresses this significant gap by optimizing its algorithms specifically to increase representation and reduce unintentional exclusion.
For companies striving to improve diversity and inclusion in tech recruitment, this platform provides a valuable tool that not only broadens candidate visibility but also integrates seamlessly into existing recruitment workflows. It signals a shift in how AI can be leveraged responsibly to dismantle, rather than perpetuate, hiring inequality.
What to watch next
Toast is currently accepting participants for the beta version of its Talent Marketplace, with plans to scale the software globally. Its launch could signal an evolution in Toast’s business, expanding from a concierge recruitment model to a scalable software-as-a-service offering that complements its personalized services.
The broader adoption and impact of the platform in addressing hiring biases will be critical to monitor, as well as its reception by recruiters and companies in Canada and potentially beyond. The involvement of key executives like COO Nicole Shokoples and founding engineer Kainat Sajid highlights the company’s commitment to this new product line as part of its growth strategy.